The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Aerliest Period to the Norman Conquest Volume 1

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840 edition. Excerpt: ...of the abbey; and the same facts are alluded to by William of Malmsbury, a contemporary, and by others. The substance of the account of Giraldus is this (3). Henry the Second, who twice visited Wales, had heard from an ancient British hard, that Arthur was interred at Glastonbury, and that some pyramids marked the place. The king communicated this to the abbot and monks of the monastery, with the additional in formation, that the body had been buried very deep to keep it from the Saxons; and that it would be found not in a stone tomb, but in ahollowed oak. There were two pyramids or pillars at that time standing in the cemetery of the abbey. They dug between these till they came to a leaden cross lying under a stone, which had this inscription, and which Giraldus says he saw and handled----" Hie jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arthurus in insula Avallonia (!i)."--Below this, at the depth of sixteen feet from the surface, a coffin of hollowed oak was found containing bones of an unusual size. The leg-bone was three fingers (probably in their breadth) longer than that of the tallest man then present. This man was pointed out to Giraldus. The skull was large, and showed the marks of ten wounds. Nine of these had concreted into the bony mass, but one had a cleft in it, and the opening still remained; apparently the mortal blow (5). (1) Mss. Vesp. A. 14. p. 51. Trioedd. 10. p. 3. (2) See the genealogy in Mr. Owen's Life of Llywarch. (3) This account of Giraldus corresponds with that of the monk of Glastonbury, which Leland has extracted in his Assert. Art. p. 50.; and Usher in his Antiq. p. 117. Malmsbury more briefly alludes to it, De Ant. Glast. (4) A fac-simile of this inscription is given in Gibson's Camden, p. 66.; and in...show more